This is first of all a remarkable story of survival. But to an  extent it is also a different kind of Second World War history, in the  sense that war history, usually the province of scholars and commanders, is  brought to dramatic life and is broken down to its basic, human elements in  Eaten By the Japanese, a fascinating and horrific memoir of war,  imprisonment, and torture by Japanese soldiers during World War II. This  account, perhaps the only one written by an ordinary Indian soldier,  radiates a humanity and a pathos which make its appeal universal and  transnational, like Iris Chang's account of The Rape of Nanking.Crasta does  not fit the usual stereotype of a soldier: a pugnacious, boisterous  brawler, a jingoist ready to march off to battle, dangerous when provoked.  He is rather a man who in his whole life never willingly hurt a fly, who is  so forgiving, so moved by a small kindness that he invites his former  enemies to visit his home. Yet, the desperate need for a job makes this man  join the colonial army of his masters to save the British Empire--which is  under attack by the empire of another Asian country. In the process, he is  nearly Eaten By The Japanese. Eaten By the Japanese raises many controversial questions. What does the  ordinary soldier--who is by definition trained and commanded not to  think--think about war when he decides to think anyway? Did Britain treat  Indians justly after the war and reward them fairly for their sacrifices?  What about the Americans, who merrily bombed the Indian prisoners--their  own side? This is a non-elitist, first-person account of history, coming  from an invisible man and an invisible class. And what about cannibalism and man's inhumanity to man? At a time when  various skeletons of the war are emerging from the closet, renewing  discussion and the demand for apologies and reparations--is the fate of  Indian soldiers who were eaten, killed, or tortured too trivial to  consider? These are some of the questions posed by Richard Crasta, son of the author,  and an author in his own right of the novel The Revised Kama  Sutra--published by Penguin India and other foreign publishers--and of the  HarperCollins India book of essays Beauty Queens, Children, and the Death  of Sex), in his moving biographical introduction and concluding essays.

Eaten By the Japanese: The Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War

History

John Baptist Crasta

Military

Invisible Man Books

Eaten by the Japanese: The memoir of an unknown Indian prisoner of war (Invisible man books)

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Books by John Baptist Crasta

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by John Baptist Crasta. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Eaten By the Japanese: The Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War

Eaten by the Japanese: The memoir of an unknown Indian prisoner of war (Invisible man books)